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News

Queen’s Hospital Emergency Department opens new Rapid Assessment and First Treatment area

opening

Today (18 April) we were delighted to open a spacious and modern new Rapid Assessment and First Treatment (RAFTing) area in our Emergency Department (ED) at Queen’s Hospital following an investment of £1.2m.

A RAFTing area is where most of our patients who arrive in hospital by ambulance receive their first clinical assessment. From here, our ED staff can decide on a treatment plan and move patients to the right area of the department or hospital to continue their care. 

The new area has more cubicle space and a new side room, meaning that our ED will have more capacity to meet the demand of ambulances arriving. We know that, just like our emergency departments, our ambulance colleagues are increasingly busy, and this larger RAFTing area aims to improve ambulance turnaround times. Queen’s sees more ambulances than almost any other hospital in London. Dominic Young, a paramedic at the London Ambulance Service welcomed the changes, saying ‘if we can turnaround from hospital quicker, we can get back out there and get to people who need us quicker.’

bays  

The area also has displays showing London Ambulance Service and East of England Ambulance Service arrival information. Katie Mortimer, a sister in our ED said that ‘the displays give a helpful overview, so if staff in RAFTing see that a number of ambulances are arriving to the hospital, they can easily escalate this so that the team can see if there are patients who can be moved in order to ease the pressure of more patients arriving.’ 

For our patients who don’t need to be cared for on a trolley initially and are able to sit, we have a new designated seating area with comfortable chairs in an area which has been designed to be provide a much quieter and calmer environment.

chairs

The new RAFTing area also has all the state-of-the-art equipment that our staff need to deliver great care for our patients. The area has its own phlebotomy room, and cubicles have machines monitoring patients’ vital signs which can also be monitored from the central desk area, allowing our staff to act quickly if a patient becomes more unwell.

We’re really excited that we have been able to open a new area which will improve the experience of patients arriving in our emergency departments. Our emergency departments continue to be very busy, and the area gives our staff a spacious and modern clinical environment to work efficiently to deliver the best possible care for our patients.

 

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